Viola's Risk (The Twin Destinies Saga Book 2) (15 page)

Dominic swore to himself as he snuck down into the prison
cells located beneath the property. He knew the girls had no idea they were
there and that both Anna and Patrick were being housed in them.

He’d wracked his brain all night long the night before,
trying to find a way to make himself worthy of having
such a spectacular being as Viola for his mate. Taking down the couple that had
tormented them their entire lives would be his key to doing just that. He
wasn’t sure how to defeat them by himself though, since the only ones strong
enough to bring either of them down were the twins themselves.

Maybe he should have given them the chance to finish the couple
off themselves, but that would never work with as imbalanced as their emotions
and powers were. Cora was a lot more balanced than Viola was. He couldn’t put
his mate at risk like that. He’d have to figure out how to do this by himself.

Rounding a corner, he came to the high-security section of
the underground prison where there were very few cells so finding who he was
searching for would be easy. This trip down here was just a scouting mission.
He was not foolish enough to go in there without a concrete plan to ensure his
success.

As he walked up to the first door, he looked through the
small partition and saw that the cell was empty.

“Dominic, is that you boy?” Anna’s voice called out, sending
chills down his spine. He heard the direction her voice was coming from and
mapped his way to her cell in his mind without going through and peeking
inside. There was no need to fully give himself away before the time was right.

“Boy, I know that’s you out there. Answer me now,” Anna
called out, anger dripping from her words.

“Give it a rest Anna. Your pet isn’t coming to save you.
He’s switched sides like I told you years ago, but you didn’t believe me,”
Patrick spit at his mate from several cells over. He’d never thought this would
be such an easy recon mission as it was proving to be.

“Shut up you fool. Dominic would never turn his back on me.
Not after everything I’ve done for the boy. He owes me,” she screeched out, the
madness in her head becoming more and more apparent the longer he was away from
her clutches.

“He owes you nothing woman. We are in here because of you
and your stupid plans to divide our race. Shut up already,” Patrick roared
back.

“Don’t you ever speak to me that way again Patrick, or
Thomas and my sister will be the least of your worries,” she threatened in a
high-pitch scream.

“There’s nothing you can do to hurt me anymore woman. You’ve
been torturing me for as long as I’ve known you. I don’t know what I was
thinking letting you talk me into pretending to be your mate so you could get
out of your parents’ house. What a fool I was. Dominic, if that is you out
there, I am so sorry for everything. Please tell Thomas and Angelica that I’m
ready to talk,” Patrick shouted out to him.

“You don’t dare say a word, either of you. You cannot hide
from me and I will make sure you both pay if either of you speak,” Anna just
started screaming at them. “They will never defeat me.”

“Take a look around woman. Have you not noticed that you
have already been defeated?” Patrick asked and then laughed at her.

Dominic began to back out of the high-security area when
Anna began trying to call him back. It took everything in him to keep his
silence and not allow her to get to him. It was too easy to let her get inside
of his head.

Slow and steady, he made his way back the way he’d come
without making a sound. The sounds of their ear-splitting argument fading,
which gave him some much needed relief as he debated with what would be the
best course of action to complete his mission.

When he’d finally made it out of the prison level without
being detected, he headed straight into the training room to get started with
his workout so no one became suspicious, and plotted in his mind as he worked
himself to exhaustion.

*****

The rest of the day passed in a blur as Sage showed Viola
place after place on her parents’ vast property. Other than the garden, the
lake and the gazebo, she knew she’d never remember it all,
unless she took this tour every day for a month.

By the time they returned to the main house, her legs felt
like jell-o from so much walking and running. She didn’t know how she was going
to follow through with the workout session that had been agreed upon at
breakfast as she climbed the stairs and entered her room to change and pull her
hair up into a quick ponytail.

Once she was done, she headed down into the kitchen and
pulled a water bottle from the fridge and drank it down in a few long swallows
before tossing the empty bottle in the recycling bin and heading to meet the
others in the training center.

Everyone had made it down there before her, so she entered
the vast room without hesitating and headed over to where they were grouped in
the middle, waiting on her.

“Hey, I was wondering if I’d worn you out too much and you’d
decided to crash instead of joining us,” Sage teased her as she joined the
group.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she teased back. “Your tour wasn’t
all that.”

Sage grabbed his chest in mock hurt and stumbled back a few
steps as if she’d stabbed him through the heart. “Your words wound me my dear.”

Liam and Cora laughed at the antics between the two, as
Viola saw Dominic pass by out of the corner of her eye. It took everything in
her not to go over and slap the stupidity out of his head. She forced herself
to stay focused on the group in front of her, but that was proving more and
more difficult with each encounter she had with her mate.

“Are we ready to get started or are we just here to watch
you two entertain us with your comical sideshow?” Liam asked with a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re ready,” Sage said, giving Viola a shove,
just because he could, and smirked when she turned on him.

“Okay, I guess we’re here for the show,” Cora said and
laughed so loud it echoed around the large room.

“No, let’s do this. I’m hungry and want to have time to get
cleaned up before dinner,” Viola said, turning serious. Dinner wasn’t the
reason she wanted to get started though, it was because she needed the release
she knew would come with a vigorous workout.

“Ok, so let’s get started,” Sage said and spread them out
and began putting them through stretches before getting into the actual routine
he’d planned for them. Viola let herself get lost in the movement and burning
of her muscles. She let it push everything else out of her mind for the time
being, knowing it would all come back to weigh her down again later.

Sage put the group through a much harder workout than he
knew the girls were expecting him to,
but he
also knew Viola needed it to clear her head. He saw the cloud that had crossed
her face as she’d spotted Dominic walking by and forced herself not to look in
his direction. He felt her inner turmoil as she fought not to give in and
confront him for being stupid.

He wished he could just lay the guy out for the same thing,
but knew it would do no good what-so-ever in the grand scheme of things. Their
best bet was to stay the course and continue on with their plan.

The mating instinct would not allow Dominic to hold back
much longer. Sage knew because he’d seen other couples try to fight it and lose
the battle. It was only a matter of time.

When he put them through the cool-down routine, he was very
impressed that Cora and Viola had kept up with himself and Liam so well.

“And, we’re done,” Sage said and watched the twins collapse
onto the mats with sweat dripping from every visible pore on their bodies.

“You don’t hold back do you Sage?” Cora huffed out.

“If you think this is bad, just wait until training begins
tomorrow. This was an easy workout,” Liam warned as he uncapped a bottle of
water and downed it almost in one gulp.

Both girls groaned so loud it echoed in the training center,
which caused both of the guys to chuckle. Neither of them were sweating much,
which told Viola quite a bit. They were used to this hard-core training stuff.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take it easy on you at first and ease
you into the harder stuff. This was just to clear your heads and give you an
outlet for all of the stress that’s been building up inside of you both,” Sage
said just before downing a second bottle of water.

“Besides, now you’ll get a great night’s sleep and be ready
for your training to begin bright and early tomorrow morning,” Liam said and
gave them a wink.

“You have got to be kidding me. I don’t think I’ll ever move
again,” Cora groaned out.

“Aw come on. Both of you are tougher than this,” Sage said
and laughed.

“Nah, I think you just worked all the tough I had left out
of me,” Viola said, closing her eyes.

“Yeah, me too,” Cora said with an exhausted laugh.

“Oh please,” Sage said and rolled his eyes. Liam just
laughed at the three of them.

“Come on wimps,” Liam said as he stood between the two girls
and offered each of them a hand to pull them up. “Time to get ready for dinner
and replenish your energy supply.”

“Nah, I think I’ll pass and stay right here. That doesn’t require
moving,” Viola said without opening her eyes.

She heard rustling and Cora giggle before feeling hands lift
her up and throw her over a strong, muscular shoulder in a fireman’s hold. Her
eyes flew open in an instant as she squealed out, “What the heck are you
doing?”

“You can’t stay here all night and since you weren’t moving
voluntarily, I decided I’d help you out,” Sage said and gave her a quick slap
on the butt as he began carrying her towards the door that lead to the rest of
the house.

Viola looked up and saw Liam carrying Cora in his arms in a
much more gentle and dignified manner and began kicking and punching his back,
screeching for him to put her down. He just laughed as he kept walking.

“I thought you didn’t have any more tough in you?” Sage said
while laughing.

“Grrrrr!” Viola screamed in response.

“What do you think you’re doing with her?” Dominic’s voice
demanded from in front of Sage but behind Viola.

“I am giving her a lift to her room so she can get ready for
dinner. She said she was too tired to move, so I’m helping her along,” Sage
said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, which made Viola bounce up and
down.

“Put her down right now!” Dominic bit out with rage lacing
his words.

“Nah, we’re good, aren’t we Vi?” Sage asked her as he
reached up and tickled her side.

“Put me down now!” Viola squealed as she squirmed on his
shoulder. She hated being tickled.

“Or what?” Sage asked, a teasing note in his voice.

“Sage’s playing with fire. He should just put her down,”
Cora whispered to Liam as she watched the scene before them play out.

“He knows what he’s doing. He’s pushing Dominic to fight for
his mate, which is what we all need and want him to do,” Liam whispered back as
the room got colder from Dominic’s powers chilling the air.

“You don’t want me to answer that Sage,” Dominic ground out
from between clenched teeth.

“Aw, why not?” Sage teased him. He knew Dominic was close to
blowing and wanted to push him just far enough that he’d realize he had to
fight for his mate to survive.

“I don’t want to fight with you. I really don’t. Just put
Viola down and we can all go to dinner in peace,” Dominic warned.

“Nah, I wouldn’t want Viola to strain her overworked muscles
climbing all of those stairs to get to her room so she can shower and change.
I’m good. If you don’t mind, I’m gonna take her there now, she’s getting a
little ripe after that workout,” Sage said and waved his hand back and forth in
front of his nose to indicate something stinky, which made Dominic’s nostrils
flare from fury.

“You will not take her anywhere carrying her like that. I am
sure she is quite capable of walking on her own,” Dominic growled.

“I’m not willing to take that chance. We wouldn’t want her
to not be able to train tomorrow, now would we?” Sage watched the other man
very carefully to read how to play him. Dominic was so close to where they
needed him to be, it was just pushing him over that edge that was tricky.

“Put her down before I come over there and get her,” Dominic
said, squaring his shoulders.

“Bring it on man. It’s not like I’m hurting her,” Sage said
and prepared for Dominic’s advance. He didn’t want to fight the man, but if
that was what it took then he would do it.

“She deserves more respect than what you are showing her
right now. Put her down,” Dominic said as he took a step towards Sage.

“Sage, just put me down,” Viola said, worried things would
escalate into a fight between the two guys.

“Nah, it’s not like you’re heavy or anything. I’ve got you.
I promise, you won’t get hurt up there,” Sage said with a smirk.

Dominic growled and stomped his way over to Sage as Viola
began to shiver from how cold the room was getting to be from his rage. She
could see her breath in the air, it was that cold.

“Don’t worry, I’ll warm you up sweetheart,” Sage said with a
wink as he used his powers to warm up the area around the small group.

“Great, can you do something about this head rush I’m
getting from hanging upside-down?” Viola snapped at him.

“Well, if Dom here will let us be on our way, I’ll gladly
get you back on your feet,” Sage said with a grin.

“PUT. HER. DOWN. NOW.” Dominic roared from right in front of
Sage.

“Man, why do you care so much? You’re the one denying she’s
your mate,” Sage said the words he’d been holding off asking.

“I care because she is my mate and I won’t tolerate anyone
treating her in any way other than she deserves to be treated. Now put her
down,” Dominic shouted at the room.

“About time you admitted it,” Sage said and put Viola back
on her feet with a grin. As Dominic reached for Viola to help her gain her
balance, so she didn’t fall over from all of the blood that had rushed to her
head, Sage walked around the couple and left the training center with Cora and
Liam hot on his heels.